1. Sustainability Perceptions in the Brewing Industry: Regional/Regional Craft, Microbreweries and Brewpubs William Blake Pierson, Nancy Hoalst-Pullen PhD, Mark W. Patterson, PhD Department of Geography and Anthropology, College of Humanities and Social Sciences METHODOLOGY The survey questions focused on the three pillars of sustainability. Under each of the pillars of sustainability, we asked respondents to indicate which actions they are and or are not implementing. We divided the respondents into two groups based on the location of their brewery. Using ArcGIS, we plotted the locations of the respondents and overlaid the US Census Urban areas maps to determine which respondents were located in a rural and urban area. We further subdivided the respondents on the basis of the type of brewery with which they self identified (brewpub, microbrewery, regional/regional craft brewery). Respondents were given a series of statements using a Likert scale of 1 to 4 ( strongly disagree to strongly agree) on their agreement with the statement. A one-way ANOVA was completed to compare the responses between “rural” and “urban” breweries. A post-hoc tukey HAD (Honestly Significant Difference) test was ran to determine which brewery type responses were statistically different. The purpose of this study is to identify sustainability perceptions within the US brewing industry. In 2014, we disseminated an online survey to all regional/regional craft breweries, microbreweries and brewpubs as identified by the Brewer's Association (BA), 2012. We employed statistical analysis to determine if there was a significant difference among the three categories of breweries found in urban and urban clusters regarding their self-assessment of sustainability. Findings indicate that regional/regional craft breweries and microbreweries tend to score higher in their self-assessment when compared to brewpubs. ABSTRACT RESULTS 303 breweries responded to our survey. The mean and median number of years of operation was 9.43 and 5.5 years respectively. The mean number of barrels produced was 17,127, while the median was 1,300. Under the definitions provided by the BA, more than half of our respondents (32) self-identified as regional craft breweries, but are actually regional breweries, as they produced between 15,00 and 6 million barrels annually. Results from the ANOVA indicate that differences in 4 statements are statistically significant (p<0.01). More specifically, these statements include using social media to promote sustainability goals, reducing energy and water using economically justifiable technology, supporting the workforce and the local community. INTRODUCTION CONCLUSION References and Acknowledgments: Over the recent years, the way companies are thinking about sustainability has changed, as it is influencing strategic decisions and practices at all level of business. This study aimed to analyze the different sustainability perceptions between Regional/Regional Craft, Microbreweries and Brewpubs associated with the economic, environmental and social pillars of sustainable development. Breweries increasingly recognize that a proactive stance on sustainability attracts customers and provides potential social, economic and environmental benefits. Additionally, we analyzed whether the breweries perceptions were statistically significant based on their location in urban or rural areas. The overall findings from the ANOVA test showed the differences in responses between “rural” and “urban” breweries were not found to be statistically significant (p<0.01). The most significant differences were found between craft breweries and brewpubs. The most likely reason for this difference is the fact that breweries focus on one product (beer) while brewpubs deal concurrently with other products (e.g. food, service etc.) The Brewers Association, www.brewersassociation.org STATEMENT 1: Microbreweries (2.84, 0.933) had higher reported use of social media to promote sustainability goals and commitments than the brewpubs (2.88, 0.857), p=0.01 Regional/Regional craft breweries (2.88, 0.857) also had higher uses of social media than the brewpubs (2.40, 1.095), p=0.024. STATEMENT 2: Microbreweries (m, SD), p=0.008 and RCB (M, SD) p=0.001 reported higher usage of technology for reducing energy and water use then the brewpubs (M, SD) STATEMENT 3: For the statement “Brewery has sustainability goals of supporting workforce”, the only statistically significant difference in responses was between brewpubs (2.91, 0.890) and regional craft breweries (3.47, 0.819), p= 0.012. STATEMENT 4: In terms of having sustainability goals to support the local community differences only existed between brewpubs (3.47, 0.819 and regional craft breweries (3.82, 0.391, p=0.01). Type (I)Type (J)Mean Difference (I-J)Std. ErrorSignificance Brewpub Microbrewery -0.2230.1270.188 Regional Craft Brewery-0.4450.1540.012 MicrobreweryBrewpub0.2230.1270.188 Regional Craft Brewery-0.2220.1410.259 Regional Craft Brewery Brewpub0.4450.1540.012 Microbrewery0.2220.1410.259 Type (I)Type (J)Mean Difference (I-J)Std. ErrorSignificance BrewpubMicrobrewery-0.3880.1290.008 Regional Craft Brewery-0.5590.1550.001 MicrobreweryBrewpub0.3880.1290.008 Regional Craft Brewery-0.1710.1430.457 Regional Craft Brewery Brewpub0.5590.1550.001 Microbrewery0.1710.1430.457 Brewery has goals of reducing energy and water uses using economically justifiable technology Brewery uses Social Media to promote Sustainability goals and commitments Type (I) Type (J)Mean Difference (I-J)Std. ErrorSignificance BrewpubMicrobrewery-0.4440.1500.010 Regional Craft Brewery-0.4800.1820.024 MicrobreweryBrewpub0.4440.1500.010 Regional Craft Brewery-0.0360.1670.974 Regional Craft BreweryBrewpub0.4800.1820.024 Microbrewery0.0360.1670.974 Brewery has sustainability goals of supporting work-force Corporate Environmental Types of breweries